On dogs and time
My long weekend in Florida was, for me, time that the ancient Greeks would have described as kairos time - time measured in beats of the heart rather than in ticks of the clock. The water, the beaches, the sun, the sand, floating down a river in a kayak, the walks with dad and Sam, chatting with mom...all those things happened without me ever caring once how long they were taking. Would we be late for something else just didn't enter my mind, nor did it matter. Because when your heart is fully engaged and when your soul is being fed, time sort of stands still. I prefer kairos time over the Greek's alternative of chronos time...kairos time feeds your soul and nourishes you in a way nothing else can.
I'm doing Kim Klassen's Beyond class again this year. To say "again" is a bit of a stretch because I didn't really stay on top of it well last year. However, a new year brings new dedication and I'm trying to stay on top of it as best I can this year. Our first assignment was to set up a shot and shoot it from many different angles and perspectives. I did this with a lot of things from my trip to Florida - like this gorgeous sunrise over the Atlantic...
...and this lovely bird that was standing on a river pier when we stopped on the way home from the Ocean to let Sammy get his feet wet. Sammy was SUCH a good boy standing back with dad and letting me shoot for a good ten minutes while my lovely model just stood proudly and let me get within just a few feet of her (him?) as I only had my 50 mm lens so all the zooming I was doing was with my feet.
And my mom would attest to how crazy I was trying to get a good picture of some gorgeous Plant City strawberries in truly low morning light inside the house...I finally settled on snapping their pic on the step just outside - but not until after failed attempts in the kitchen and living room where there was just not enough light to do their beauty justice. I love photo subjects that you can then eat for breakfast!
But, as I was thinking about Kim's assignment, I kept coming back to the routine of dad and Sam. You see, dad worries every year when they go to Florida that he'll be bored. My incredibly active dad is typically filling his days with yard work, puttering in the barn, keeping the local community center clean and in good working order, volunteering at church, and - even though we wish he'd retire completely from it - going on fire and emergency responder runs with the local volunteer fire department. In Florida, though, he spends a LOT of time with Sammy. The two of them walk about five miles a day - sometimes Sammy gets in the pond - and almost takes dad with him...
And most days, they end up in the park right across from the house playing ball - and getting in a few belly rubs. So, that's why for Kim's assignment I decided to go with the photo at the top...I've taken that specific shot probably a hundred times as Sam and dad are both pretty routine oriented in how this ball throwing and retrieving thing works. But, on that afternoon, with the sun shining through the sprinkle of trees, there was something so perfect about that one shot - that one heartbeat captured forever through the lens.